New Friend; God's Grace

I am always amazed by God's grace in my life.

I am always overwhelmed by the messages that He sends to me in my little life.

Why would the King of the Universe care?  Why would what I do matter in the universal scheme of things.  But it does and He cares.  Awesome.

One way that His love for me is shown is the different relationships He bestowes upon me.  Throughout my life, He has afforded me the right people at the right time.  People for me to learn from, to grow with, be chastised by, rebuked and warned.  I have laughed hardily with some pretty witty people.  I have been blessed by the intercession from some pretty strong prayer warriors.  And then there are the Special Surprises. I have a new friend and our relationship fills me with such joy;  I just know that she has been sent to me from God to see things with a different paradigm, a viewpoint from a perspective that I have not experienced before.  Let me tell you about her.....

 I have known of my new friend for many years.  She lives near me and our lives have intersected many times.  But it wasn't until I signed up for the mentor program at our local elementary, that I became formally introduced to her.  When I signed up, I certainly didn't expect to be assigned in Math.  Dearie me.  I lost track of math somewhere near the fourth grade, which ironically, is the grade the Math Buddy is in.  Funny how God works these kind of things.  My weekly visits to her classroom morphed into homework sessions at my home.  This quiet little girl would come in, sit down, respond to her work, answer questions presented, then pick up her pencil and leave for home, few words shared.  That was last fall.

 As her trust of me developed, our sessions became filled with more and more conversation.  I would ask her if she would like to share supper with me, and with few words, she would agree that maybe that was all right. I would walk her home after our sessions and walks lead to talks and she started offering more about herself. Both of Math Buddy's parents are deaf mutes.  Some of her social difficulties can be, I'm sure in part, due to this.  But do not think for a minute that she is not intelligent.  Conversely, her silent life has led her to a great deal of introspection and maturity for a ten year old child.  She observes keenly and has a quiet wit that is charming.  Soon, we were sharing longer dog walks together, chatting away as we followed the dogs.

 A reward system was developed for multiplication facts mastery.  We had a good time coming up with proper rewards for the systematic accomplishment of each set of facts.  In doing this, I got to find out what she likes and finds interesting.  Our interests reveal so much about who we are.  In all my crazy house, the one thing that she finds so intriguing, is my ancient books. She told me, as she thumbed through a 1883 copy of Longfellow, "I don't really like to read the books as much as I enjoy thinking about who owned this book then and what they thought of it and who they were."  See?  Brilliant..

Of course, this endeavor has been bathed in much prayer, by me and my intercessory friends.  Partly for the poor child that has the misfortune of being tutored by this mathly deficient person, (sometimes she says quietly, when I am stumped by fourth grade math, 'Maybe your son can help us?' ) but mostly, that this little girl can feel Christ's love for her in this person that she depends on for math success.  In doing this through prayer, I had an inspiration one day.  I told her that I would love it if she would teach me sign language.  She asked me, 'So you can talk to my mom?'  And I saw that this was very important to her.  I agreed totally, that getting to know her mother would be a lovely thing.  The next day she showed up with Lottie Riekehof's book.  MB was ready and willing to take on this challenge.  She was strident in my homework assignments and demanding in perfection.  I got graded, rated and corrected.  She understood my struggle, comparing it to hers in math.  We would laugh at the boo boos that we would make and then go forth together. This week, I had the joy to actually 'speak' to her mother without MB's help!  I could sense the happiness in both of them as I intentionally entered their world.  I received kudos from MB for 'speaking' so well to her mama and I was so thrilled I could hardly stand it.....


Math Buddy has nearly mastered her times tables.  She is getting probability and early algebra and geometry. And she is getting me as well.  In fact, she knows me very well, showing up at my home this week with this tiny porcelain sewing machine to hold my pins, she says.  I did have to do a perfect sign alphabet before she would surrender it to me, however.  As I walked her home the night she presented the little trinket to me, I told her once again, thank you for the gift.  She grinned back at me and said 'Too bad it's not real; you could make tiny little clothes on it!'  And I responded in my best old Seinfeld episode quote, 'We could make teeny squirrel clothes!'  We both smiled as she walked inside her house.....Priceless.






Math Buddy likes to write.  Her stories are horror filled, scary and bloody.  This week as she made her first batch of chocolate chip cookies with me, she shared her bound book, courtesy of Young Author's Week at school, with me. As I grimaced about the content,  I made her promise that her next book would be light and cheerful and have a happy ending.  She grinned and nodded, so we shall see....


Maybe it will be about an older friend that had a hard time with math, owned some pretty nutty doggies, had a house abounding with interesting things but the little girl knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was loved and cared for.....And this was all through her older friend's lovely Lord, who has done much for her.....


'To much is given much is required....'.......
Thank you Jesus, for Your precious care......